Yamon Yamon reside in almost perfect mood. It truly shifts to your needs, weather or listening habits. Far be it for anyone to deny that this slightly mathy but altogether indie rock band is not even a little amazing. 2007's EP Days like Television is a concise section of their out put but possibly stronger than their full length. The EP slam jam's an inhuman level of hooks and pristine vocals. There is no slouching on the full length either though. Track one Alonso will more likely than not be stuck in your head for weeks. Not a bad thing considering what normally gets stuck in my head....kids songs / classic rock.
I wanted here to start a new thread of blog posts, The New Breed challenge, where you fellow bloggers and friends of the blog write up pieces about an album, artist or song that demonstrates the combination of two stellar artists/ genres of music into a completely new, unique sound. I have been taking in as much Max Tundra as possible this last week, and, in how i initially reviewed his work, a few things have changed but a few things have stayed the same.
First, i will backtrack and say again how Max Tundra combined the sounds of two of my favorite artists, Squarepusher and Passion Pit, into one new strong sound. While Squarepusher works in a completely instrumental-based level, using incredibly intricate melodic production behind wonderful rhythm arrangements, Passion Pit utilizes a more band friendly, keyboard-and-laptop approach to an electronic band, with wonderfully catchy vocals front and center. The things i have been loving about the Max Tundra album are the songs that really get deep into the combination of these two elements, creating intense electronic instrumentation behind straight forward vocal melodies. I have grown to appreciate this combination so heavily that the extended instrumental sections that Max provides, to me, only take away from the strength of his "Ill Combo" work. Instead of 10 minutes of electronic outros, i would much rather have 2 or 3 more rocking, 3-minute goodies such as Number our Days, off Parrallax Error Beheads You.
My only gripe about this track is the last 40 seconds or so, where it moves into an instrumental section that does not resolve with a refrain of the chorus, or something along those lines. The work before the instrumental outro is so lovely. It starts as a videogame soundtrack, but quickly gets a steady beat and some vocals layed over a bassline, with an expanding videogame soundscape behind it, and intricacy being added to all instruments; then that chorus hits, and everything scales back to give way to wonderful descending vocal lines and tight backing rhythms and harmonies. Those hills and valleys continue for the next verse and chorus, and then in comes fullscale electronic wiling-out madness. Although i have stopped enjoying these instrumental sections as much as i do his vocal work, everything is so well produced that listening to it through, as a complete album, gives some added enjoyment as it all flows very well track to track. I highly recommend it.
Colour is a now defunct group from England that very much likes their math with a liberal sprinkling of pop rock and there is no shame in that game. Parts of the group have now reformed into a band called Tangled Hair, who are pretty similar and cool in their own respect. Any who, upon breaking up the group released an Anthology of there songs for all to enjoy. To tell you the truth though there are only a couple songs on that worth anyones time (many would disagree) Their Unicorns EP is short at three songs but packs everything that makes them so damn good into em. This group can play fast and technical while still remaining highly catchy. The first song Unicorns is packed with tightly wound upstroke riffs with some nice time changes. Well worth the eight and a half minutes it takes to plow through it.
Population is the sophomore effort from Canada's The Most Serene Republic. Signed to revolving door super group Broken Social Scene's label arts and crafts you may be able to piece together the sonic puzzle of this band. Boy girl vocals, horn section, indie pop rock with dynamic song structures....sound familiar? Well yes and no. You'd have to be in a lot of denial to say that they don't sound even a little bit like BSS. But it would be doing this group a disservice to dismiss them on these charges. Its a very enjoyable outing and actually pushes things a bit more than even their influences do. Also as another feather in their cap the drums are top notch running amok. Just check out album highlight "compliance" where they are front and center tearing up the earth around them. Its worth the time to check but wont be sneaking on anyone's top 20.
